Virtual accounts?

[Jörg Schaible]

Hi Derek,

Derek Atkins wrote:

> Quoting Jörg Schaible <joerg.schaible at gmx.de>:
> 
>> Hello,
>>
>> still learning to use GC2 and I have questions left that may be answered
>> by one of you ...
>>
>> Currently I don't know how to represent "virtual accounts". Say, I try to
>> save from my monthly income a certain amount of money in these "virtual
>> accounts" e.g. for the car, for holidays and for health expenses. But the
>> money is physical available either in my check account or the savings
>> account. Therefore I cannot simply create an account Asset:Savings:Car
>> and transfer money from the check account into it ... since the checking
>> account is balanced online with my bank. How can I simulate monthly rates
>> into the virtual accounts or charge such an account with expenses?
> 
> If the money is sitting in Assets:Checking just create a subaccount,
> Assets:Checking:Car, and move your savings into there.

Hmmm. Isn't it that the online account may not have sub accounts? And the
money is physically located in Assets:Checking and Assets:Savings.
Additionally the "virtual account" may become negative e.g. the Car account
has savings of $10000, but I spent $12000 for a new one (since the money is
physically available, but was originally thought for something else). So
the monthly savings for cars will have to fill this gap.

Currently I can only see that I have e.g. $15000 left in total, but I cannot
see how much of it was dedicated for a certain area. If I spend $1000 for a
new computer the "virtual Computer account" is quite empty and I know that
I have to save some money again before buying the next or another one.

- Jörg